[felipe]

Homelessness is a serious and complex issue rooted in mental health and poverty, and the "mentor" behind the homeless coder reduced it to a game, just to show that all one needs to succeed is the patronizing goodwill of some privileged narcissistic clown.

Stories like this are actually a disservice to the cause of technology as an agent for social and environmental change.

[chill1]

Wow.. Where do I begin with your comment? I very rarely get upset about comments on the internet, but yours is particularly revolting. When was the last time you stopped in your day-to-day life to try to help someone? And, I don't mean give money to a homeless person or donate to a charity.

I have imagined myself doing what the "privileged narcissistic clown" -- as you call him -- did in this story. I haven't done it yet, but one of these days I am going to push myself enough to do it. I fail to see how he was patronizing the homeless gentlemen. It seems to me that he was treating the guy as a fellow human deserving of respect, and as having potential. If he didn't think he had potential, he would not have bothered. Seriously... what is wrong with you?

[felipe]

I have a very close family member who went missing and eventually was found homeless. In the course of the investigation we found that several people exploited and took advantage of him for personal gain.

If you study the issue (like we did) you will find that this is a common and recurring problem, as homeless people are mentally vulnerable and open to narcissistic individuals.

Nothing against helping others -- I myself volunteered for social-change tech ngos for several years. My problem is in exploiting a vulnerable person for personal gain, which this guy is obviously doing.

[kirse]

we found that several people exploited and took advantage of him for personal gain.

which this guy is obviously doing.

You're not projecting your own personal experience into this story at all, are you? The only way for you to draw this conclusion is to have spoken directly with Patrick McConlogue, and for him to confirm to you that his motives were to exploit this guy.

Two people can have wildly different internal motives that produce similar-looking behaviors. Careful with your snap judgments.

[fallinghawks]

While I'm sorry about what happened to your family member, that doesn't mean the same thing is happening here.

I think McConlogue's point is that homeless people aren't all stupid, stoned-out losers. And that some are capable of learning pretty complex stuff. Sure, plenty of homeless are screwed up, some hopelessly so, but we can't blanket them all with that label.

Here's a guy who's acting locally. And it takes some guts to do something risky. McConlogue may not be thinking globally, but he's doing what he can. Which is far more than a lot of us can claim.

[felipe]

> homeless people aren't all stupid, stoned-out losers.

And then you say I am biased?

[fallinghawks]

Yes. People took advantage of your relative, and you appear to assume Leo is being taken advantage of as well without having any hard evidence of it.

Are you accusing me of bias when I said "homeless people aren't all stupid, stoned-out losers"? That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

[Alex_MJ]

From your perspective, what should McConlogue do or have done differently? He's obviously going to benefit from the exposure but I don't see any evidence that he's throwing Leo under the bus in the process.

It seems like a mutual gain to me, compared to a do-nothing approach. If the news story were "Leo goes back to square one after software engineer ditches him after getting publicity" then it would be a different story, but for now, the cynicism feels pregnant but premature.

[felipe]

Why the choice is between exploitation vs. do-nothing? Why not the old-school approach? Interview experienced professionals in the area (people who actually work with homeless people) and then interview homeless people in order to find out what are the problems they face, then design a repeatable and sustainable plan and implement it.

I'm not accusing McConlogue to throw Leo under the bus. I am accusing McConlogue to throw technology professionals under the bus: People who believe in the cause of technology for social development and environmental change. People who make real sacrifices and take their job seriously instead of making up little games. People who would not call a homeless person "unjustly homeless" as if others were "justly homeless".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_and_communication_t...

[Alex_MJ]

Given that he doesn't seem like a soup-kitchen kind of guy (from reading his Medium), why not take a new approach where you try one thing, understand one person in depth, see what you can do, and work from there? That's how you learn and get in-touch with anything.

There's more than one way to skin a cat. People do methods A, B, and C all the time. This guy is trying method D, and doesn't seem to be gunning for repeatable or sustainable or "solve the homeless problem in one fell swoop". He comes across as arrogant and out-of-touch on his blog but he's basically got the dude's back. IMO, at the end of the day all of that adds up to a good thing.

Also, I've worked with some NGOs and I've found them to be generally ineffective at solving problems but great at making volunteers feel good about themselves so the last place I'd want to go if I wanted to understand homelessness would be aid workers, and the first place would be some reading, my own instincts, and working with one individual homeless person. I personally like the "ballsy n=1 experiment" approach he's taking - even though his language makes him come across as kind of a dick.

Also, he is making a real sacrifice - one in terms of time/effort teaching him to code, and two in terms of reputation/job risk. If Leo fails, or if the media twists it the wrong way, McConlogue looks like a jackass and he seems smart enough to understand that.

[malkia]

This might sound obvious - but he was really teaching the man to catch fish, rather than feed him with it. He might turn out to be good, or bad fishermen, but at least he's trying.

I leave money to homeless people, but I do it since it makes me feel good. I do it for me first (to be honest), then for them. I wish I have the dedication to do what this young man did, because I often think how cool it would be, but I end up just giving money. huh...

[zipppy]

Maybe this is just the cynic in me talking, but if his intentions were truly selfless, why are we aware of him and aware of his actions?

Somewhere along the line he helped make the world aware of his own actions.

[shortformblog]

It is a serious issue, but I don't think the guy's goal was to reduce it to a game, but to do something well-intentioned.

In a lot of ways, what he's doing, on a small scale, is similar to the street newspaper concept that has gained significant popularity in cities worldwide. (Disclosure: I do some volunteer layout for such a newspaper.) The guy has a way to build income for himself now, and has learned skills which could someday be useful. But most importantly, he didn't have a creative idea foisted onto him. He came up with it on his own. It might not make him a ton of money, but there is the potential it'll make him a few dollars he didn't have before.

That part about coming up with the idea on his own is huge—way huger than you think. That is something that will help Leo build confidence in his own talents. It's exactly why street newspapers are largely written by the homeless, rather than merely sold by them.

I'm not saying that this is going to solve anything, and as we've learned from similar stories (golden-voiced Ted Williams, made-over veteran James Wolf), these situations often turn dark and raise huge ethical questions the second the person relapses in any way. So maybe it's not good that our energy is focused on two guys, one of whom may find himself unprepared for the pressures of unexpected fame.

But I think that there's something to be said about the fact that McConlogue is thinking about how to scale the concept. If he turns this idea into a nonprofit driven by donations, who knows what could happen next?

I don't think anyone expects what happened here to solve the problem. But there's some room to expand and build this idea. What if, like street newspapers, this concept grows into a way to build apps for the homeless, apps that work on easily-obtainable prepaid phones that help the homeless obtain easy access to public resources often hidden away by paperwork or location, or apps that make it easier to receive assistance from a bystander? Maybe you could even create a task-based micropayment app that allows people in such situations to raise money for themselves by performing small tasks like taking photos or reporting on their surroundings—say, a Mechanical Turk for mobile. Perhaps it could use a gameplay style similar to Waze or Foursquare? I'm spitballing here, but you see what I'm shooting for.

Maybe it's wrong that we're focusing our energy on a single tree when there's clearly a forest that needs to be dealt with first. But you know what? I'd rather that someone at least try to plant a seed rather than immediately dismiss the idea out of hand.

[felipe]

It's interesting that you mentioned the newspaper model, because that's actually what I had it on the back of my mind when I wrote my comment above: The newspapers you are referring to actually have a history rooted in social-justice activism and grassroots movements, which are very different from the patronizing approach McConlogue decided to take. I do not see a minimal interest in his Medium blog, in the video, or anywhere else related to the homeless issues, their lives, how they got there, and so on. To the contrary, his choice of words are actually offensive and demeaning.

I suggest you take a look at his Medium blog.

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Poverty (in the US) is rooted in income and intelligence, and income is tied to education[1].

Please explain to me how directly getting in and spending time educating someone is 'turning it into a game'.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States#Fa...

[kingnight]

This seems like a cart before the horse situation. If someone was willing to invest in Grand to educate him to program, why would they also not invest in his overall wellbeing? Why did he have to be continue to be homeless to accomplish this if he had someone helping him out?

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If it was me helping, I could afford to invest a certain amount in someone and help them learn to code, but providing enough money for stable housing is probably beyond my capability.

[logicallee]

What if all a homeless person needs to succeed is the patronizing goodwill of a privileged narcissistic clown, and you're wrong that mental health and poverty on the other side of the scale are enough to tip it in the direction of enduring homelessness?

If this is the case how would we know it - what data points would show it? And how might a report on those look?

[nsxwolf]

This is gobsmackingly negative. How did this person harm anyone? Leo now has some programming skills which might eventually find him a job and a better life.

What have you done for anyone lately?

[dhaivatpandya]

By that reasoning, helping someone who has fallen on hard times by teaching him/her new skills is counterproductive? That doesn't really make a lot of sense.

[Alex_MJ]

Thank you! Almost forgot that we shouldn't spend time teaching willing people in rough situations useful things because it's narcissistic and patronizing.

I appreciate your reminder that the correct approach is to keep a safe distance and loudly bemoan the problem as "a complex issue".

[devilshaircut]

I actually agree with the view you express here. While I find the story to be positive - after all, it is apparent that someone did something nice for someone else and improved their life a great deal - I think you are right to say that it is a disservice to the gravity of homelessness in the United States. It is such a complex problem, as you said, rooted in extremely serious issues like mental health, wealth inequality, and lack of proper healthcare. While I love to talk about how code literacy is the solution to many problems, it really has almost zero salience to the topic of homelessness. Ultimately, what helped this guy was the kindness of a complete stranger. Not the education. Not the computer.

[grannyg00se]

How did he reduce it to a game? According to the story the "narcissist" actually sat with this guy for many hours teaching him how to code. He gave his time and effort to teach someone new skills. New wealth was earned. Pretty great really.

[n1ghtmare_]

Wow, I can't believe there are people like you around. Your comment is nothing but negative. What do you consider a positive story ? How did he reduce it to a game ? What are you talking about ?

[smtddr]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6441795

....every single time. Now watch as the comment section get destroyed. It's already the top-comment. By the time my comment is 12hrs old, this comment thread will take up 2 screen lengths and hardly any other comments will occur outside of it.... that is, if HN's algo doesn't drop this story from the frontpage in the next 15mins.